On the beach

Back on the beach at Nida, on the Baltic side of the Curonian spit. We spent a day relaxing in the sun here, but the waves were strong and cold!

Iraq-blogg and more Middle East...

Swedish correspondent Johanne Hildebrandt bloggs from Iraq again - at Aftonbladet.

A Kurdish journalist in Kirkuk has taken these photos for the BBC.

And Swedish professor of Religion Jan Hjärpe writes on the incapacity of states as Middle East actors and why it is difficult to go on with a peace process. Very worthy of thought, if not optimistic at all!

Given the circumstances, what is Tony Blair (or any other appointed peacemaker) actually supposed to be able to obtain?

Klaipeda crossing

Sorry for the hysterical skipping round between motives and times during our trip last week. I guess I get overexcited when I have so many new photos to show... ;-)


This is from the car ferry between Klaipeda and the Curonian spit - Klaipeda port and the crossing. So I guess I'm back into some sort of chronology of the trip... but I understand if you're confused... and the worse it will get...

Alan Johnston appearance

After 105 days in captivity, Alan Johnston appears in a new video now, wearing what is claimed to be a bomb-belt. Here is a Swedish radio report also.

The captive Israeli solider Gilad Shalit was also heard in a soundbite today - one year into his captivity (whish was one of the triggers of last year's Lebanon war).

Really tragic is also the general downward spiralling in Gaza - which of course becomes more underreported by the day...

Trees in Vilnius

A city with trees and greenery in abundance is a true luxury!

Monuments

Todays Svenska Dagbladet has 2 articles on world heritage sites of especial importance. One is on the selection of seven wonders of the modern world, with photos of finalists here. The seven historical wonders you can read about here.

The other article is something I've written on previously, with threathened monuments listed by World Monument Foundation. Also here they have a photo special.

Superman definitely lives in Lithuania!

Well, you know I have worried previously about where Superman goes to change these days, when phone booths are increasingly replaced by higher cellphone penetration? I got part of the answer in Lithuania, where I saw more phone booths in a week than I usually do in a year!

Holding the sand?

Walking-paths on the actual dunes were marked out by these contraptions - I don't know quite how to describe them. I guess they were meant to keep people from wandering out onto the loose sanddunes - they said many hundred kilos of sand were released by each person venturing out on it and the dunes have decreased substantially in recent decades.

Charity donation opportunities

A few recommendations of organizations and campaigns I find especially worthy of support:

Swedish Save the Childrens report on their work 2006 can be found here. Online donations are also possible and there is also a webb-shop. Read also their press release on Corporate Social Responsibility and companies work on the Millenium Developments Goals and the driving forces behind corporate contributions.

The Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU where you can also read reports on sexuality and poverty, for instance) has a condom campaign Love-support right now where 5 SEK of the price goes to anti-HIV-work in Zambia.

I always like to promote the Swedish Committe for Afghanistan a little extra. Their work for health and education over more than 25 years is laudable, especially for girls education. They also have a webbshop and you can find ways of supporting them here. You can also see some photo material from an exhibition they have put together, by 3 different photographers over thepast 20 years.

Baltic dunes

Between Nida and the Kaliningrad border, on the east side of the narrow spit, these dunes overlook the lagoon.

Traces in the sand

Over the coming days I will be able to show very exotic places, at least by the standards of this blogg! We have been to Lithuania, seeing not only Vilnius but Klaipeda (historically Memel) and the Curonian spit, with sand-dunes along a narrow coastal peninsula, almost on the Kaliningrad border.

But first me, making my marks in the sand... ;-)

Reading post

These links have been gathered over quite some time, since I haven't made a post like this in a while.

First, some articles on the drain of people from Iraq. And an op-ed from Swedish Aftonbladet on the threat towards Assyrians/Syrianis especially. Dagens Nyheter has a series with very illustrative graphics in their paperversion on the migration floiws from Iraq, following the trip from a Baghdad travel agency towards Europe, but I can't seem to find it on the web...

Last week, the Stockholm peace research institute Sipri released their yearbook with statistics on military spending and other related issues. Here is a short news summary, also.

And a writer I admire, Salman Rushdie, has been knighted, to add to a long list of literary prizes and acclamations. I just sincerely hope that this well-merited act of recognition does not trigger the same sort of scenes that last years so-called cartoon crisis did...

Lastly, an article from Svenska Dagbladet on Persian rosewater and the traditions surrounding it. I actually ate an icecream called Teheran recently, in Stockholm!, with pistacchios, saffron and rosewater in it. Delicious!

Photo exhibitions

Children of Baghdad is a photo exhibition currently shown by the Stockholm Museum of Near Eastern and Antique Art, running until September. I won't have time to see it myself until later this summer, but I suggest all that are interested to go! It shows Children in Baghdad in 1999, 8 years ago, by a Greek photographer.

Alan Johnston

Alan Johnston has today been captive for 99 days. You can still sign the petition for his release. For the 100th day tomorrow, BBC staff are planning a special vigil.



Hamas threatened to free him by violence recently and had set up some sort of deadline for his release, but it wasn't met, of course. But, a bit more noise has been made on the case in the last few days. I don't know if we dare hope, seeing the way Palestinian politics have been going, but still, we have to cling to hope - on all fronts.

I heard a reporter from Swedish radio (old link) saying recently they had been the first and for a long time the only media outlet to name the alleged captors, by the way!

Update Wednesday, after 100 days in captivity, a summary from Swedish radio P1.

World refugee day

World refugee day is tomorrow, and the reminder from UNHCR is that we could all end up in that situation one day. The Swedish Red Cross as usual can take donations online, also earmakred for certain conflict areas, and welcome a report on healthcare for immigrants without ID-papers.

Update Wednesday with a UNHCR op-ed.

Lilac!

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of a second lilac season, in Sweden this time. But it was early! In Ankara they came late...

More Beypazari

A dome looked out from behind some of the more restored housing (now made into stores, restaurants, a museum and hotels) - I guess it was a local mosque, but didn't go close up to look.

Book recommendation

I am actually still in the process of reading this book, the latest of the Inspector Ikmen-series set in Istanbul by Barbara Nadel. But since it combines several interests of mine, including crime novels, modern Turkish life and carpets (!!!) I cannot help loving it from page 1. It also initially thanks my favourite carpet shop for their expertise help, which of course makes me even more positive in mind! My carpet-budget is far below the featured expats though... but I can't help wondering if I shouldn't have been in the book myself. ;-)

Thank you Barbara Nadel, I really needed this book right now!

Old Beypazari houses

Well, a selection of less restored Beypazari houses, here. Parts of the town were very nicely done up, but I think I prefer this style, actually!

Re:Orient

The festival is on!

I will spend a lot of time at seminars and panels they organize - on reporting on the Middle East, on the future of Iraq and on freedom of expression. And then I will see Saad tomorrow night!

Beypazari hamam

Among all the pretty old houses we passed, I guessed this was the local hamam - at least the architecture indicates so, even if there was no sign or anything. Maybe it's not in use and not restored for visits either? I liked the domes and vaults a lot, though!

Endangered history

World Monument Fund has just announced a World Monuments Watch-list of the most endangered historic sites in the world. Iraq and other conflict areas are of course especially vulnerable and of concern.

Six of the sites listed are in Turkey, among them Hasankeyf (which I have previously shown you pictures of here), Istanbul's city walls and an Ankara han. Several other personal favourites of mine are also listed and there is a possibility to contribute to the Watch-efforts.

Cleaning gold!

The little market town was full of jewellery shops, both gold and silver (yes, I shopped!). And at one place we even found a man cleaning gold jewellery, in something that looked like a box full of sand!

Iran

Media in Sweden over the last few weeks have had several interesting inside reports on Iran that I would like to share with you. I enjoyed several of the radio reports by Cecilia Uddén during a May visit:
on jewish life in Iran, on performance art, on hardening attitudes on women's dress, on intra-clergy political criticism

If I find more, I will add them here. All the links are in Swedish, though.

Bitte Hammargen of Svenska Dagbladet writes earlier this week on flea market sales of things perceived by outsiders as strictly forbidden (with photos).

The carrot capital of Turkey!

Beypazari, one hours drive northwest of Ankara reportedly has the best carrots in Turkey. I spent a relaxed Saturday there recently, and stocked up on carrot juice, carrot locum and other local specialties.

Kapadokya landscaping

Some views of the volcanic landscapes of Kapadokya. You have probably seen them also here before, but they do give a good picture of the amazing quirks of nature that have shaped also Kapadokyan life for centuries.

Values and speech

I'd like to share 2 interesting articles from today's Dagens Nyheter with you.

One is a value system survey, where Sweden is really the "odd one out". The paper version had some illustrative graphics, that I unfortunately cannot find on the web for you.

The other is a review of a book on the silencing of journalists. This is a topic I have brought up before and feel strongly about, as you know.

40 years on

Al-Jazeera shows these pictures of the 1967 Middle East War, now, to highlight that it is this week 40 years ago. Also you can visit their theme site on the anniversary.

BBC gives this commentary on the event's importance for the region today and shows these pictures of West Bank conflict resolution training for children.

Svenska Dagbladet on Tuesday leads their editorials with this. Swedish radio's morning talk programme ran several stories to highlight the occasion. Aftonbladet runs an editorial comment on Palestinians in Lebanon.

Amnesty International takes the opportunity to call for a watchdog body to monitor human rights violations taking place. Read more on this here.

Read also Amnesty's annual report for 2007.

7 June update: this Svenska Dagbladet-piece by Cordelia Edvardsson is among the most thoughtworthy (as usual by this remarkable journalist!) I have read this week.

Cave monastery

At the far end of Ihlara valley, these caves were the Selimiyye monastery. A Seljuk tomb lies beneath, but these caves were used by monks and for church purposes.

Middle East Studies

Lunds University in southern Sweden has just started a new Middle East Studies centre - as I understand it is is intended as a strengthening of previously existing research and teaching by joining them together by theme. The event was commented on by Expressen here. Present at the inauguration was among othe prince Hassan bin Talal, who was interviewed by Swedish radio recently.

Ihlara landscapes

Sorry for all the skipping around among my recent pictures - my aim is always to be sort of systemativ either in time or in theme - but right now I haven't succeeded in this at all!

Nevertheless, these dramatic escarpments are the edges of Ihlara valley in Kapadokya.

Sufi cemetery

In between Beyoglu and Galata, the Galata Mevlevihanesi (20 meters from Tünel Meydani) offers one of Istanbuls calmest oases. Seeing the dervisches whirl on Sundays is an experience - and I have shown you pictures of that before. But just the yard, with a beautiful still feeling, and the cemetery featured here are worth visiting in itself. On hot or chaotic days, this offers a cooling refuge.